By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Most activities have an off-season. 4-H is no different with the brunt of activities coming to a close earlier this month. National 4-H Week is celebrated the first October of each month, and Cottonwood Extension District 4-H Youth Development Agent Michelle Beran, and 4-H Ambassador Ailey Williams attended Tuesday's Barton County Commission meeting to bring the proclamation home. Beran explained the impact of local 4-H clubs to the commission.
"We just finished the Kansas State Fair, which means the 4-H year is ending and the new 4-H year begins Oct. 1," she said. "In Barton County, we have eight community clubs with nearly 150 4-H members. Kansas 4-H offers over 40 projects, and within each of those projects are included communication, leadership, citizenship, and career options."
Williams, a student at Great Bend High School, was one of five local 4-H members to attend Discovery Days at Kansas State University in June. The event gave members the opportunity to experience college by eating and staying in the dorms, attending classes, and navigating a large university. Williams said she took the opportunity to learn more about business and marketing.
"Some of my favorite project areas I do are foods and arts, mainly foods because that's what I want to do as a career," she said. "That's how I figured out what I want do to through 4-H."
A volunteer was needed for Agriland at the Kansas State Fair. Local 4-H clubs were also contacted by the Kansas Beef Council, and Williams spent four hours as a volunteer in Hutchinson. She and another high school 4-H member also served as co-superintendents of visual arts for the fair, overseeing some 300 entries.